Microbials

Impact on agriculture and the seed industry

Marcus Meadows-Smith BioConsortia, Inc.

Seed Central, UC Davis, 9 February 2017

Agenda

1) Introduction to Microbials - Marcus Meadows-Smith, CEO, BioConsortia 2) Agrinos - Dr. Mylavarapu Venkatramesh, VP Discovery Research 3) UC Davis - Dr. Venkatesan Sundaresan - Professor, Plant Biology & Plant Sciences 4) Novozymes - Dr. Matthew DiLeo, Application Development Group Leader 4) Bayer CropSciences - Dr. Varghese P. Thomas, Principal Scientist, Microbiology & Crop Efficiency, Biologics

Microbials - why should you be interested?

Impact on and Opportunities for the Seed Industry: #1 selling seed treatment in the USA contains a microbe - PonchoVotivo from Bayer CropScience Monsanto spends $50million on microbial R&D field testing 2,000 microbes per year - adding microbial seed treatment to all new 2017 corn hybrids New microbial on 50,000 acres cotton demonstrated an 11% yield increase - Indigo Cotton – improving yields under water stressed conditions Microbes can impact almost any trait on most crops - BioConsortia’s AMS process has demonstrated increase in % sugar content

Perceptions

• Less effective • Inconsistent • Hard to use

Limited Markets

• Organic food • Residue management on F&V • Dominated by small companies • Bt - the only significant product

<$1 billion

$41

Global Pesticides Market 2009 (1)

Biopesticides Crop Protection Microbials Synthetic pesticides

Historic Market

Year & source of market estimates: (1) BCC Research 2010

Yiel

d Ad

vant

age

(bu

/acr

e)

(15.0)

(10.0)

(5.0)

-

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

Yield effect from biological seed treatments Yield Effect - Microbial Seed Treatment

Growing Understanding – Microbes & Microbiome

Harmful to plants: • Pathogens • Growth

suppression

Benefit plants by providing: • Access to macro and micronutrients • Pathogen and pest resistance • Plant growth hormones • Stress protection

Modify plant functions: • Structure and growth • Metabolite production

“People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes too.”

• Genome sequencing

• Big data management modeling

• Systems Biology

• Microbiome / community analysis

• Metagenomics

• Transcriptomics (RNA of community)

• Proteomics (protein expression)

• Pharmaceuticals

• Industrial Biotech

Other industries have helped to underwrite advancements in ag sector:

Drivers for growth & adoption

Macro Drivers • Pesticide residues • Resistance Management • Fertilizer run-off & leaching • Regulatory pressures/Delisting of many Pesticides • Climate volatility: droughts, flooding • “Green” pressure from Food Value Chain & consumers

Other Key Factors • R&D costs for synthetic pesticides

• Synthetic > $ 230 million, 8-10 years

• GM Trait $ 130 million, 12-14 years

• Biopesticide $ 25 million, 5-6 years

• Mind set change in Ag leadership • Enhanced credibility • Superior products

Industry 2008 … 100’s small players

Focus & Investment in Microbials

~$100mil

~$500mil

~$1 billion

~$100mil

~$300mil

Market Growth

Projected CAGR of 15.3% reaching $4.5 Billion by 2019

2008

Plant-Microbe Selection

Phenotype Selection Microbiome Analysis

Reinoculation

Microbe isolation Final selection Directed selection Microbe capture Diverse soil microbes

Proprietary, patented process

Directed selection of the microbiome to identify teams of beneficial microbes

Improving plant trait performance Isolation of microbes and construction of key consortia from superior plant microbiomes

Selection of superior plants Plant phenotyping used to identify superior plants and potentially beneficial microbiomes

Evolving the microbiome Iterative selection and advancement of beneficial microbiomes from superior plants

Advanced Microbial Selection (AMS)

Seedlings accumulate a different microbial community structure than that present in the soil

SOIL: OTU abundance (%)

SEEDLING: OTU abundance (%) Microbial species

Microbial species

Rela

tive

abun

danc

e Re

lativ

e ab

unda

nce

Soil vs Seedling Microbiome

-10 0 10

Superior Average Pathogenic

Phenotype distribution

0 10 20

Driving an improvement in trait performance Accumulation of microbes responsible for enhanced targeted traits.

Selecting the superior phenotype Selection in both ideal & stressed environments.

Changing the microbial community Advancement of the most beneficial microbes through iterative selection rounds.

The AMS Process

Proprietary, patent-pending process

Directed Selection

G x E x M = Phenotype

100+ soil samples for microbial genetic

diversity Plant-Microbe Selection

Phenotype Selection informed by DNA

sequencing

Reinoculation

BioConsortia rapidly evolves the microbiome through directed selection: causing beneficial changes in the plant’s microbial community for superior crop phenotypes.

Evolving the Microbiome

Genetics x Environment x Microbiome = Phenotype

Proprietary, patented process

Drought AMS - water loss following drought

Phenotype Improvement

Decreasing water loss

100 soils

Microbe capture

Round 1 selection

After AMS selection

Mean percentage water loss

AMS Driving Trait Improvement

Drought AMS - water loss following drought

Phenotype Improvement

Decreasing water loss

100 soils

Microbe capture

Round 1 selection

After AMS selection

Mean percentage water loss

AMS Driving Trait Improvement

Fertilizer Use Efficiency N, P, K

Abiotic Stress Tolerance Drought & Salt Tolerance, Cold & Wet Tolerance

Biotic Stress Tolerance Corn Root Worm, Nematodes, Soil and Early

Season Pests & Disease D Metabolite Expression Increased Sugar Content

Productivity Emergence, Early Vigor, Root and Foliar biomass

Crop Yield

GM & Conventional Crops

Corn Soybean Wheat Tomato Leafy Veg Pasture

Improved Trait Performance